When Mohammad Amir first burst onto the international scene, scores of people
from surrounding villages flocked to his parents’ house in the hamlet of
Changa Bangyaal, in Pakistan’s Punjab region.

King of swing: Mohammad Amir is now regarded as one of the finest swing bowlers in the worldPhoto: PA

By Nick Hoult

9:12PM BST 27 Aug 2010

There his family supplied all visitors with tea and roti as they proudly revelled in their son’s acclaim. That was a year ago and it would be a major surprise if since then they have done anything but feed and water strangers paying homage, such has been Amir’s remarkable first 12 months as an international cricketer.

His six wickets at Lord’s on Friday etched his name on the honours board and completed the next stage on an extraordinary journey for a bowler who only touched a real cricket ball four years ago.

That experience caused fingers unfamiliar to the feel of a leather ball’s seam to bleed. Amir had been brought up on street cricket using a tennis ball wrapped in masking tape. The tapeballs, as they are known, swing prodigiously and no doubt Amir first learned to control the moving ball, and the way it unnerves batsmen, playing in the streets of his village.

But his background story is not simply one of a kid plucked from the dusty streets and thrown straight into the national team. Amir, the youngest of seven children, is very much a blend of the traditional and modern virtues of Pakistani cricket. Once his talent was identified he was sent away to board at a cricket academy in nearby Rawalpindi, aged only 13.

From there he graduated to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s development centre in Lahore, and his passage into the national side was assured once Wasim Akram gave approval after spotting him at a training camp in 2007.

There have been setbacks. He contracted dengue fever in Malaysia in 2008 and a junior tour to England ended in a back injury as his fragile frame failed to cope. The idea was to build muscle but his inability to stomach British food meant he lost weight.

Back in Pakistan, he was able to build up his frame and add pace to his ability to swing the ball both ways without a noticeable change in his action.

When Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach, became an ever present mentor, the final touch was put in place. The result is 30 wickets in a gruelling six Tests this summer and no doubt an awful lot of entertaining for his parents.